So, I finally got time to review a OnePlus One.

[terrytek]

So, maybe it's time I do a review.

 

I finally got my OnePlus One in the mail today. Shipped out on Sunday. I would like to thank @yuh25 for the invite for a OPO 64GB Sandstone Black. I felt very skeptical that this phone might not suit my needs, but it actually pleased me very much. And I thought an iPhone 6 would be better. Anywho, what you're here to see, THE DAMN REVIEW.

 

 

Unboxing

 

So, once I got the package, I screamed like a little fangirl inside and ripped the box open. It's a lot thinner of a box than I expected. I took off the slip and opened up inside. Then the beauty of a phone has been revealed. The phone itself looked a lot like a Nexus 5, just with the metal border. From the start, the phone was going to look very good. I lifted the phone out of the little plastic thingy that separated the phone from the accessories. I cradled the phone in my hand, it felt totally marvelous. The backing of the phone felt like soft, very soft sandpaper, and I instantly fell in love with it. The screen itself is also very pretty. It's Gorilla Glass, which I still am not a big fan of really compared to sapphire, but it seems to be nice and clear. What really kinda upsets me is that it really isn't oleophobic. Once I took off the stock screen protector, it starting gaining fingerprints. It's kinda suckish, but hopefully my new Armorsuit Militaryshield US made screen protector should help keep this screen clean and free of scratches. 

 

 

First Power On

 

Well, I like the fact that it comes preloaded with CyanogenMod 11S, so that's a big plus. And (correct me if I'm wrong) it's a light UI, so to speak, not like Touchwiz and that crap hogging RAM. When I first powered it on, the Android logo, not the KitKat logo, with a Cyanogen animation, appeared, and it's really cool. Then, once it got to the first time setup with the Google account setup and that, so that wasn't unique. Then it took me to the home screen. I was amazed at how simple, yet how complex it looked at the same time. It just brought me to my knees. Also it was a nice thing of OnePlus to create a folder and put all the Google related apps in that folder. Thanks, OnePlus, for paying attention to the details.

 

 

CyanogenMod 11S

 

So, CyanogenMod 11S is probably the next smoothest OS behind iOS anything preloaded. It's light, and with combined with a fast Snapdragon 801, it's snappy and very responsive. There are so many features of CyanogenMod I have never seen in Android, like, ever, before. The default CM theme is nice and dark, and I suppose you can change it back to stock Android 4.4.4 (it was upgraded to it right after first powerup). Relating to changing, I like the fact that pretty much visual related can be customized, from themes to bootloaders to even sounds. I like that, very much. It's certainly better than iOS in some ways, like iOS can't be color changed, or have different bootscreens and all that chiz. 

 

 

Hardware

 

So, the OnePlus One was pretty much a very good buy for its performance. Sure, it may have the same Snapdragon 801 as some of it's better known competitors, like the Samsung Galaxy S5 and the HTC One M8, and even the Sony Z3, but none of those have as much ram as the OPO. This phone has 3, yes, 3, fricking GBs!! Sure I'm exaggerating, but my Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 only has 2GB of RAM. To make matters worse, it has Touchwiz, which is a big RAM hog. I think CM is nice and light, so there is plenty of RAM for apps to run without running out of RAM and crashing. But I keep hearing that some apps are not optimized for KitKat, so they will crash a lot. I will just have to find out. There is a total of 64GB of storage, so yeah, probably a lot of photos and videos and apps. But even I think 64 is a bit small. I wished OnePlus had a 128GB edition like the iPhone 6, or at least have a microSD slot. 

 

Network Speeds

 

So, since I just got this in the mail today, I forgot to order a microSIM card, so it's not on any network yet, so I can't test how fast LTE speeds are on here. And there's no point of doing it on my WiFi, because we have dialup. Not good for a tech filled house.  I might update this once it gets on a network.

 

Overall Thoughts

 

So, I was extremely pleased with this phone. I thought it wouldn't be better than the iPhone, but I was dead wrong. It was a whole fricking lot better. The hardware's better, the software is better (especially with iOS 8.1.0 being buggy), and the build quality seems to actually be better even though the back is plastic (since the iPhone 6+ actually bends). I just want to add that it was only 349 dollars, so for the price of an iPhone, I could have 2 of these babies. So psyched. It was like a kid in a candy store.

[Jaybird]

good review. 

[terrytek]

good review. 

Thanks.

[Castdeath97]

Shame can't get an invite easily, My 4s will soon catch a fire...

[terrytek]

Shame can't get an invite easily, My 4s will soon catch a fire...

Is  it overheating that bad? Wow. IDK how many invites I get, I might give some away.

[Castdeath97]

Is  it overheating that bad? Wow. IDK how many invites I get, I might give some away.

It just drains and drains and drains (and overheats doing so), pretty much off 24% each day with wifi/3G on, though my s3 had the same issue so I'm kinda suspicious that my carrier is doing something wrong.

[terrytek]

It just drains and drains and drains (and overheats doing so), pretty much off 24% each day with wifi/3G on, though my s3 had the same issue so I'm kinda suspicious that my carrier is doing something wrong.

Both your 4S and S3 had the same carrier? If not, it's probably just old. My old Motorola Droid RAZR has really terrible battery life.

[Castdeath97]

Both your 4S and S3 had the same carrier? If not, it's probably just old. My old Motorola Droid RAZR has really terrible battery life.

Both of them hocked up with the same sim, I'm testing with my iPad though to make sure.

[terrytek]

Both of them hocked up with the same sim, I'm testing with my iPad though to make sure.

Hmm. Really odd of a carrier to just drain battery like that. 

[Legion]

This feels more like a first impressions blog rather than a review. Glad you like your new phone though. Hopefully you don't run into any issues involving the yellow tinted screen or has that since been resolved?

[AlexStriz]

Both your 4S and S3 had the same carrier? If not, it's probably just old. My old Motorola Droid RAZR has really terrible battery life.

Then you feel my pain    Still rocking the RAZR as a DD. Maybe you can hook me up with one of you invites    

 

Anyways, really nice review. Some pictures would be nice too

[terrytek]

Then you feel my pain    Still rocking the RAZR as a DD. Maybe you can hook me up with one of you invites    

 

Anyways, really nice review. Some pictures would be nice too

I was going to give a friend an invite. IDK how many I get.

 

I didn't have a camera at the time.

[algoat]

Good review. I've had my oneplus one for 2 weeks now and I love it. I'd say the OS is just as smooth as it is on the iPhone 5s. I've tried the iPhone 6 briefly but didn't notice any difference with the previous model. It's still not as smooth as the high end Windows 8 phones since that's probably the lightest OS around.

One thing I've noticed about the oneplus is that the accelerometer isn't as responsive as I'd like it to be. Switching from landscape to portrait and back takes a little bit of time. Tell me if you experience the same thing. I haven't noticed any yellow tint like others have. A plus that I've taken for granted is how quickly it charges. Compared to my old Nexus, iPhone and my wife's HTC One, this can recharge 3 times over before they finish once.

Enjoy the phone and update us with what you find.

[terrytek]

Good review. I've had my oneplus one for 2 weeks now and I love it. I'd say the OS is just as smooth as it is on the iPhone 5s. I've tried the iPhone 6 briefly but didn't notice any difference with the previous model. It's still not as smooth as the high end Windows 8 phones since that's probably the lightest OS around.

One thing I've noticed about the oneplus is that the accelerometer isn't as responsive as I'd like it to be. Switching from landscape to portrait and back takes a little bit of time. Tell me if you experience the same thing. I haven't noticed any yellow tint like others have. A plus that I've taken for granted is how quickly it charges. Compared to my old Nexus, iPhone and my wife's HTC One, this can recharge 3 times over before they finish once.

Enjoy the phone and update us with what you find.

Thanks for commenting. The accelerometer on mine is probably good, i assume, but it does take a couple seconds. Haven't noticed any yellow tint either. Probably because I bought mine a couple months after release. I also like how quickly it charges. It was super fast. It charged from 0 to 100 percent in about 2 hours. Really good charger!